Rewriting History: US Think Tank Challenges CCP's WWII Victory Claims

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"Ostensibly a tribute to wartime heroism, this display is, in truth, a monumental distortion of history, a calculated fiction meant to glorify the party, vilify its contemporary adversaries, and mislead its people."

The above excerpt comes from a recent commentary issued by the Hudson Institute, sharply criticizing the Chinese government's September 3 Victory Day parade. 

Closely aligned with the Trump administration, the institute is a prominent Washington-based think tank whose policy recommendations often reflect the administration's views.

The commentary contends that the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) military contributed little to no fight against Japan, yet still claims credit for the triumph. Author Miles Yu, director of the institute's China Center, goes on to call Beijing's assertion of "victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan" a "fiction."

Dr Yu is a veteran China scholar who earned his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. During the first Trump administration, he served as an advisor on China affairs to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He also currently holds a professorship at the United States Naval Academy. 

Beijing's Cognitive Warfare

On September 3, the Chinese government staged a military parade and victory commemoration over Japan in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. That day falls on the day after Japan signed its surrender on September 2, 1945.

To underscore the 80th anniversary of the war's end, China mounted an international propaganda campaign this year. Foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, were in attendance.

Exposing False Narratives

The Hudson Institute's report highlighted the following key points regarding these developments:

• The claim that the Chinese Communist Party's army fought and defeated Japanese imperialism as its primary enemy is a brazen lie intended to glorify the Party. 

• Between 1937 and 1945, it was the Kuomintang forces under Chiang Kai-shek that bore the brunt of the fighting against the Japanese Imperial Army, suffering some 3.5 million casualties. The Communist forces, by contrast, remained largely confined to the Yan'an area of China and engaged in almost no combat with the Japanese army. 

• The much-touted "Hundred Regiments Offensive," which the Communist Party presents as a major battle against Japan, in fact caused fewer than 500 Japanese casualties. The Party's claim of 46,000 casualties is unfounded. 

• The Communist forces, which were called the Eighth Route Army at that time, suffered remarkably few losses, precisely because they engaged in minimal combat with Japanese forces. Only one senior commander, General Zuo Quan, is confirmed to have died in battle. 

• Although the Communist Party stresses its wartime cooperation with the American forces, the Office of Strategic Services of the US military in China primarily worked with the Nationalist Army. In fact, Communist forces even targeted US operatives for assassination.

Ammunition to Fight Back

Based on the above records, the Hudson report concludes that the CCP's current claim that they "defeated the Japanese army and won the anti-fascist war of resistance against Japan and WWII" is entirely fabricated.

Several background factors are also mentioned in the report. The Soviet Communist regime pressured the CCP to avoid direct attacks on Japanese forces because of the 1941 Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact in effect at the time. 

Moreover, Chairman Mao Zedong restricted combat with Japanese forces to minimize casualties among the Eighth Route Army and prepare for future battles against the Kuomintang.

These remarks, coming from circles close to the Trump administration, are likely to offer Japan strong ammunition to counter Beijing's fabricated claims.

RELATED:

• Why Japan Must Brace for a Summer of China's History Warfare
• Confront the CCP's Historical Lies and Seek Liberation

Author: Yoshihisa Komori, Associate Washington Correspondent for The Sankei Shimbun

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